Commons, John R(ogers) (b. Oct. 13, 1862, Hollandsburg, Ohio, U.S.—d. May 11, 1945, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) U.S. economist. He taught at the University of Wisconsin (1904-32) and published works such as A Documentary History of American Industrial Society (10 vol., 1910-11) and A History of Labor in the United States (4 vol., 1918-35), in which he linked the evolution of the U.S. labour movement to changes in the market structure. He drafted reform legislation for Wisconsin and worked for the federal government in areas including civil service and worker’s compensation.
commonwealth Body politic founded on law for the common “weal,” or good. The term was often used by 17th-century writers to signify an organized political community, its meaning thus being similar to the mod¬ em meaning of state or nation. Today it primarily refers to the Common¬ wealth. Four U.S. states (Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia) call themselves commonwealths, a distinction in name only. Puerto Rico has been a commonwealth rather than a state since 1952; its residents, though U.S. citizens, have only a nonvoting representative in Congress and pay no federal taxes.
Commonwealth or Commonwealth of Nations Free associa¬ tion of sovereign states consisting of Britain and many of its former dependencies who have chosen to maintain ties of friendship and coop¬ eration. It was established in 1931 by the Statute of Westminster as the British Commonwealth of Nations. Later its name was changed and it was redefined to include independent nations. Most of the dependent states that gained independence after 1947 chose Commonwealth membership. The British monarch serves as its symbolic head, and meetings of the more than 50 Commonwealth heads of government take place every two years. See also British empire.
Commonwealth Games Quadrennial sports competition for coun¬ tries of the British Commonwealth. The inaugural meeting was called the British Empire Games and was held in Hamilton, Ont., Can., in 1930. The Games include athletics (track and field), gymnastics, bowls, and swim¬ ming events for both men and women, and boxing, cycling, shooting, weight lifting, and wrestling for men only. Rowing, badminton, and fencing have also occasionally been included.
Commonwealth of Independent States Free association of sov¬ ereign states formed in 1991, comprising Russia and 11 other republics that were formerly part of the Soviet Union. Members are Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Moldova. Its administra¬ tive center is in Minsk, Belarus. The Commonwealth’s functions are to coordinate its members’ policies regarding their economies, foreign rela¬ tions, defense, immigration policies, environmental protection, and law enforcement.
commune \,kam-,yun, ko-'myunX Group of people living together who hold property in common and live according to a set of principles usu¬ ally arrived at or endorsed by the group. The utopian socialism of Robert Dale Owen and others led to experimental communities of this sort in the early 19th century in Britain and the U.S., including New Harmony, Brook Farm, and the Oneida Community. Many communes are inspired by reli-
Commodus as Hercules, marble bust; in the Capitoline Museum, Rome.
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440 I commune ► community property
gious principles; monastic life is essentially communal (see monasticism). B. F. Skinner’s Walden Two (1948) inspired many American attempts at communal living, especially in the late 1960s and early 1970s. See also COLLECTIVE FARM, COMMUNITARIANISM, KIBBUTZ, MOSHAV.
commune Vkam-.yun, ko-'myimX In medieval European history, a town that acquired self-governing municipal institutions. Most such towns were defined by an oath binding the citizens or burghers of the town to mutual protection and assistance. The group became an association able to own property, make agreements, exercise jurisdiction over members, and exer¬ cise governmental powers. Communes were particularly strong in north¬ ern and central Italy, where the lack of a powerful central government allowed them to develop into independent city-states. Those of France and Germany were more often limited to local government.
Commune of Paris See Paris Commune
communication theory or information theory Field of math¬ ematics that studies the problems of signal transmission, reception, and processing. It stems from Claude E. Shannon’s mathematical methods for measuring the degree of order (nonrandomness) in a signal, which drew largely on probability theory and stochastic processes and led to techniques for determining a source’s rate of information production, a channel’s capacity to handle information, and the average amount of information in a given type of message. Crucial to the design of communications sys¬ tems, these techniques have important applications in linguistics, psychol¬ ogy, and even literary theory.
communications satellite Earth-orbiting system capable of receiv¬ ing a signal (e.g., data, voice, TV) and relaying it back to the ground. Communications satellites have been a significant part of domestic and global communications since the 1970s. Typically they move in geosyn¬ chronous orbits about 22,300 mi (35,900 km) above the earth and oper¬ ate at frequencies near 4 gigahertz (GHz) for downlinking and 6 GHz for uplinking.
The satellite's solar panels are arrays of solar cells that provide the electrical energy needed for its functions/ the power being stored in batteries. Its antennas may be 8 ft (2.5 m) in diameter and may transmit wide-area-of-coverage beams or narrowly focused "spot" beams.
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communism Political theory advocating community ownership of all property, the benefits of which are to be shared by all according to the needs of each. The theory was principally the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Their "Communist Manifesto" (1848) further specified a “dictatorship of the proletariat,” a transitional stage Marx called socialism; communism was the final stage in which not only class division but even the organized state—seen by Marx as inevitably an instrument of oppression—would be transcended (see Marxism). That distinction was soon lost, and “communist” began to apply to a specific party rather than a final goal. Vladimir Iuch Lenin maintained that the proletariat needed pro¬ fessional revolutionaries to guide it (see Leninism). Joseph Stalin’s version of communism (see Stalinism) was synonymous to many with totalitari¬ anism. Mao Zedong mobilized peasants rather than an urban proletariat in China’s communist revolution (see Maoism). European communism (see Eurocommunism) lost most of its following with the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991). See also Communist Party, dialectical materiausm, First Inter¬ national, Second International.
Communism Peak See Imeni Ismael Samani Peak
Communist Information Bureau See Cominform
Communist International See Comintern
Communist Manifesto Pamphlet written in 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to serve as the platform of the Communist League. It argued that industrialization had exacerbated the divide between the capi¬ talist ruling class and the proletariat, which had become impoverished, and called on the proletariat to overthrow the capitalists, abolish private property, and take over the means of production. It predicted an eventual classless society and the gradual elimination of the need for a state. It ends by stating, “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite.”
Communist Party Political party organized to facilitate the transition of society from capitalism through socialism to communism. Russia was the first country in which communists came to power (1917). In 1918 the Bolshevik party was renamed the All-Russian Communist Party; the name was taken to distinguish its members from the socialists of the Second International who had supported capitalist governments during World War I. Its basic unit was the workers’ council (soviet), above which were dis¬ trict, city, regional, and republic committees. At the top was the party congress, which met only every few years; the delegates elected the mem¬ bers of the Central Committee, who in turn elected the members of the Politburo and the Secretariat, though those organizations were actually largely self-perpetuating. The Soviet Union dominated communist parties worldwide through World War II. Yugoslavia challenged that hegemony in 1948 and China went its own way in the 1950s and ’60s. Communist parties have survived the demise of the Soviet Union (1991), but with reduced political influence. Cuba’s party remains in control, as does a hereditary communist party in North Korea.